flect-, flex-

(Latin: bend, bending; curve, curving; turn, turning)

reflectively

reflector

reflex

1. An automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus.
2. Noting or pertaining to an involuntary response to a stimulus, the nerve impulse from a receptor being transmitted inward to a nerve center that in turn transmits it outward to an effector.
3. Occurring in reaction; responsive.
4. Cast back; reflected, as light, color, etc.
5. Bent or turned back.
6. Designating a radio apparatus in which the same circuit or part performs two functions.

reflexive

1. Describes a pronoun referring to the same person or thing as another noun or pronoun in the same sentence. The reflexive pronouns in English end in "-self" or "-selves," e.g. "myself," "yourself," "ourselves."
2. Describes a verb that takes a reflexive pronoun as an object, thereby indicating an action that the subject does to or for itself: "He admired himself".
3. Relating to or being the product of a reflex;such as, "a reflexive action in response to the explosive sound."
4. Without thinking; an automatic and involuntary or unthinking.
5. Describes a relation between pairs of logical objects or numbers that are the same or of the same size.

reflexively

reflexiveness

reflexology

1. A form of massage in which pressure is applied to parts of the feet and hands in order to promote relaxation and healing elsewhere in the body.
2. The scientific study of physiological reflexes and their relation to behavior.
3. A theory that explains human behavior as complex chains of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes.

reflexotherapy

1. The treatment of some morbid condition by exciting a reflex action, as in the household treatment of nosebleed with a piece of ice applied to the cervical spine.
2. Form of homuncular acupuncture whose focus is the foot.

retroflection, retroflexion

1. The act of bending backward.
2. An articulatory gesture made by turning the tip of the tongue back against the roof of the mouth.
3. A turning or tilting backward of an organ or body part.
4. A bending backward of the body of the uterus upon the cervix.
5. The acoustic quality resulting from retroflex articulation.

retroflex

1. Bent, curved, or turned backward.
2. Pronouncing certain words and/or letters with the tip of the tongue turned back against the roof of the mouth.
3. A sound pronounced with the tongue in retroflex position, as the sound "r" in some varieties of English.

retroreflectivity

A principle in painting road stripes which includes glass beads that are embedded in the epoxy and paint of the stripes so when the lights of vehicles shine on the beads, they reflect back to the drivers.

synreflexia

The association existing between various reflexes.

vasoreflex

1. A reflex that increases or decreases the caliber of blood vessels.
2. A reflex involving a blood vessel.